Dive Brief:

• Construction technology company Quartz Systems received $7.75 million in pre-seed and seed funding earlier this month. 
• Quartz’s integrated hardware and software platform uses crane-mounted cameras and machine learning to help construction projects be safer and more productive. It is installed on jobs worth over $3.3 billion, and has been used by contractors including DPR and PCL.
• Baseline Ventures led the funding round, with Felicis Ventures, Lemnos and Bloomberg Beta also participating. The funding will allow the San Francisco-based company to expand sales from the West Coast to the entire United States, CEO Jeremy Conrad told Construction Dive. 

​Dive Insight:

The Quartz system utilizes an advanced crane camera and dashboard system to provide real-time, 360-degree visibility into construction site activities including equipment tracking, personnel monitoring and productivity tracking, features that can help construction managers run sites during the coronavirus pandemic, Conrad said.

Using a wireless, multi-camera setup, Quartz streams 4K live feeds anywhere in the world, with high-resolution, low-latency video. Project managers and superintendents are able to see both live and historical data remotely, without having to step foot onsite or into an office, and can monitor security from afar, with night vision, motion detection and alerts, Conrad said. Users also can see construction delivery and crane utilization metrics.

The company is also developing tools to understand and improve site safety, concrete cycle productivity and social distancing compliance and is seeking partners to develop and deploy these features on sites across the United States, Conrad said.

“Our solutions are designed to be turnkey for the general contractor: Once installed, you can easily get more advanced analytics about your project, in addition to high-resolution video streams,” he said, adding that it has many applications for helping to run construction during the coronavirus pandemic. 

Another crane-based tech product, Versatile Natures, received funding last summer. The company’s CraneView platform offers a holistic view of construction sites via sensors mounted under the hook of a crane. Data collected by the sensors provides insights such as information on materials, redundancies, construction progress and crane utilization, according to the firm.